Police in
Swaziland have called in for questioning civic leaders who want to hold a
public meeting about the state of democracy in the kingdom.
The police are acting without a court order or
warrant. But, according to a local media report, the station commander who
demanded their appearance said he was working on the orders of ‘superiors’.
The three
leaders are Sam Mkhombe, a spokesperson for the pro-monarchy political party Sive
Siyinqaba; Dr Alvit Dlamini, President of the conservative political party Ngwane
National Liberatory Congress (NNCL); and Thulani Maseko, a human rights lawyer working
in Swaziland.
They were
due to speak at a meeting today (12 April 2013) to mark the 40th
anniversary of the state of emergency declared by King Sobhuza II in 1973 that
turned Swaziland from a democracy to a kingdom ruled by an autocratic monarch.
The King’s
1973 decree banned political parties and allowed the monarch to make laws as he
saw fit. The decree has not been properly rescinded since and the kingdom
operates under a perpetual state of emergency.
The three
men were ordered to appear at police headquarters at 9.00 hrs today local time (12 April
2013).
The three
were due to speak at a public meeting this afternoon jointly organised by the
Swaziland United Democratic Front (SUDF) and the Swaziland Democracy
Campaign (SDC). The topic of the meeting was to be the significance of the 1973
Royal decree.
In publicity for the meeting the two organisations had said in a statement, ‘The decree criminalised
political activity, saw the banning of political parties and the introduction
of a system of governance benefitting a few elites and their cronies; all at
the expense of the majority of Swazi’s who continue to languish in poverty,
underdevelopment and perpetual neglect.’
The statement went on to say 12 April would be marked in
Swaziland as ‘a black day in the history of our beloved country’.
It said Swaziland was now ‘paralysed by fear, docility,
corruption [and] repression’.
The meeting, originally planned to take place at a
restaurant in Mbabane, the Swazi capital, has been moved to a venue yet to be
announced.
Police in Swaziland have increasingly taken it upon
themselves to stop public gatherings that they consider to be unlawful. They
operate without court orders or warrants.
In February this year a battalion of armed police invaded
the Our Lady of Assumption Cathedral in Manzini and forced the congregation to
vacate the church alleging that the service ‘intended to sabotage the country’s
general elections’.
In March, heavily-armed police, supported by the Operational
Support Services Unit prevented members of the Trade Union Congress of
Swaziland (TUCOSWA) from holding a peaceful commemoration prayer in celebration
of the federation’s anniversary.
Earlier this week, the Open Society Initiative for
Southern Africa (OSISA) told the African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) meeting in The Gambia that Swaziland
police and state security forces use ‘increasingly violent and abusive
behaviour’ that is leading to the ‘militarization’ of the kingdom.
Things are so bad in the kingdom, which is ruled by King
Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, that police are unable
to accept that peaceful political and social dissent is a vital element of a
healthy democratic process, and should not be viewed as a crime, OSISA said.
See also
DEMOCRACY PROTEST TO BE ‘MUTED’
SWAZILAND ‘BECOMING MILITARY STATE’
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